Friday, January 8

Cologne-Style Attacks on Women Reported in Austria, Switzerland, various German cities

"Cologne-style attacks on women are common, routinely hushed up by the authorities"

“The officers on the ground [in Cologne] couldn’t gain control of all of the events, attacks and crimes – there were simply too many at the same time "

I'm getting the feeling Chancellor Merkel's political party will be run out of Germany on a rail in the next federal elections, scheduled for sometime between August and September 2017. I'm not sure Merkel will last that long; she could be forced to step down in an attempt to save her party.

There were two reported rapes during the assaults in Cologne on New Year's Eve. See the second report, below. But several of these mass sexual assaults seem well-planned and coordinated and meant to provide cover for robbery.

Several women were robbed and sexually harassed in Austria and Switzerland, on New Year's Eve, and there have been many similar cases also reported in Hamburg and other German cities with the victims saying that they had been robbed, groped and molested by groups of “dark-skinned men,” an Austrian newspaper reported.

The attacks in Salzburg and Zurich were reported within hours of similar assaults in Cologne where numerous criminal complaints have been filed about robbery and sexual abuse, including two reported rapes by perpetrators who allegedly staged orchestrated attacks on mainly female revelers in the crowds, Der Standard wrote on Thursday.

Several cases of sexual assaults and robberies have been reported also in Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Munich and Frankfurt.

Cologne police said on Tuesday that ninety criminal incidents, many involving sexual assaults, were reported following New Year's Eve celebrations in the city.

The victims described the attackers as gangs of intoxicated Arab or North African men between the ages of 15 and 35.

Many of the assaults were apparently meant to distract, allowing attackers to snip wallets, cellphones and other devices. Those who tried to fight off the assailants were told in no uncertain terms to get back or face the consequences.

Media reports said that the attacks appeared to have been organized as around 1,000 young men arrived in large groups, seemingly with the specific intention of carrying out attacks on women.

On Thursday Cologne police said that most of the suspects in the New Year’s Eve attacks had entered the country only recently and had applied for refugee status. Many of them are migrants from Syria and North Africa.

A German ex-policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Cologne-style attacks on women are common and routinely hushed up by the authorities.

A police report on the mass sexual assaults in Germany on New Year’s Eve has been leaked and shows that officers had a difficult time containing the situation which was described as "chaotic and shameful."

Der Spiegel received the copy of the report, which describes officers as being overwhelmed as approximately a thousand men gathered outside a Cologne train station attacking and sexually assaulting women.

“The officers on the ground couldn’t gain control of all of the events, attacks and crimes – there were simply too many at the same time for that to be possible,” a high-ranking officer wrote. “On the square outside were several thousand mostly male people of a migrant background who were firing all kinds of fireworks and throwing bottles into the crowd at random.”

“Even the appearance of police officers on the scene … didn’t hold the masses back from their actions.”

The men were described as being of Arab or North African origin. Over 100 women have filed sexual assault complaints, and two rapes have also been reported.

"Women, accompanied or not, literally ran a 'gauntlet' through masses of heavily intoxicated men that words cannot describe," the document described.

Victims described being hit with bottles and firecrackers, and some reported being robbed.

"I heard a sizzling sound in my hood. I somehow tried to get it out of the hood," a woman described being robbed for her cellphone. "Then it fell into my jacket and burned everything. The scars will stay. I was lucky that it didn't explode."

The officers have few leads on the attackers, as there were just too many happening at once and they were unable to get things under control.

One officer quoted an attacker as saying, "I'm a Syrian! You have to treat me kindly! Mrs. Merkel invited me."

The German government is asking people not to blame all asylum seekers for what happened, but has also made clear that deportation is on the table for any refugees found to have been involved.

"We must examine again and again whether we have already done what is necessary in terms of… deportations from Germany in order to send clear signals to those who are not prepared to abide by our legal order,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.

“The feeling women had in this case of being at people’s mercy, without any protection, is intolerable for me personally as well,” she continued. “And so it is important for everything that happened there to be put on the table.”

THREE Syrians have been arrested in southern Germany for the alleged gang rape of two teenage girls on New Year's Eve.It's the latest in a spate of reported sex attacks in the country which has been rocked by awave of assaults in Cologne.

Two 14-year-old boys and a 21-year-old man have been held in Weil am Rhein, a small town near the Swiss and German borders, for the suspected rape of a 14 and 15-year-old girl.

The girls were allegedly held for several hours and gang-raped after going to a New Year's Eve party at the home of a 21-year-old man in the village of Friedlingen.

The arrests only emerged last night, despite the suspects being in custody for several days.Prosecutors say they kept tightlipped to protect the victims' identities.

Cops are still searching for a fourth suspect thought to be the man's 15-year-old brother.

Police said the culprits are not asylum seekers. The 21-year-old and his brother are German citizens, while the 14-year-old boys live in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Detectives have said they do not believe the incident is connected to the sickening night of sexual attacks in Cologne.

At least 120 women reported being robbed, threatened or sexually molested at New Year celebrations outside the city’s cathedral.

In addition there have also been reports of attacks on women across the country.

More than 50 criminal complaints filed in the northern city of Hamburg, 39 of them for sexual assault. Witnesses described gangs of men who "hunted" their victims outside the nightclubs of the city's Reeperbahn.

One victim said: "I was alone and suddenly I realised men were handling me.

"I pushed away the hands and tried to scream. But when one hand went the next had already come. I felt helpless."

Similar incidents have taken place in Dusseldorf, which have been described as those in Cologne.

Seven criminal complaints of sexual assault are being investigated by Frankfurt Police, including three men who say they were surrounded by a group of 10 men and "massively" groped.

Two 18-year-old women were surrounded and groped by a group of around 15 men in Stuttgart, and later discovered their mobile phones had been stolen.

Police described the suspects as of "Arab appearance". Women have reported sexual harassment on the streets of Bielefeld and in a nightclub by a group of around 150 men described as of "North African appearance".

It comes as it emerged that some of the men involved in the horrific Cologne sex attacks claimed to be Syrian refugees.

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